iPhone tethering plan for AT&T to be announced at Macworld?
Just about the only Apple rumor that hasn’t been touched upon in the blogopshere leading up to Tuesday’s Macworld keynote has been an iPhone tethering plan for AT&T. The lack of tethering has been an issue for many iPhone power-users since its launch back in 2007 and its addition would surely help boost the iPhone’s ARPU considering the plan has long been rumored to be somewhere in the region of $30/5GB (which is of course the same deal AT&T currently offers its BlackBerry users). Whether or not this rumor pans out is anyone’s guess but only one thing is certain: With this many rumors flying around, the Macword keynote is definitely going to let just about everyone down because there’s no way Apple will hit all of the bases that have been covered.
I tethered with my Z9 before I was gifted an iPhone, and needed to tether. I have a broadband card with ATTWS (no flamers, it works for me where I need it to).
With the iPhone modem resets and dropped data connections – Apple’s still got some kinks to work out, and so does ATTWS – I’m not so sure tethering to an iPhone is such a good idea. I’ll stick to the card for now.
With the news of AT&T allotting their EDGE back from 850 to the 1900 spectrum, is this a clear sign for those in the 3G 850 world to have better data rates on a clear spectrum?
Since I live in a 1900 majority area, and have 3G on my laptop, Im not too worried, except that iPhone users are more likely then any other phone type (except BlackBerry) to “tether” thus slowing my speed. I dont think AT&T has a strong enough network just yet (especially without 1700/2100) to launch MORE data products on a network already iffy.
And what do I mean by the 1700/2100 – is to say they could have launched data cards, laptops, and USB modems in a new frequency as the products come out and slowly migrate people to those spectrums.
Now why on earth would anyone need to tether when the macpro macbook and iphone all have wifi already? As any apple loyalist will tell you, they dont even know why they have a cell phone/data plan becuase there is wifi EVERYWHERE and they ALWAYS USE WiFi
$30 for 5 Gigs of data a month is ridiculous. Is anyone stupid enough to pay that amount for tethering???
I use my Blackjack II and iPhone to tether. The connection is flaky at times, though I was able to download a Demo for my PS3. The file was about 520M. Not too shabby.
Welcome to 2006, Apple. Seriously I have been doing this with my $15/month unlimited 3G plan and my WM and Palm phones since then and it doesn’t cost me a dime over that.
No way would I pay for this. (not even a one time fee.) The iPhone 3G should have had this capability at launch. the fact that at&t wants to nickel and dime me means that I won’t be tethering.
@jetbear: Enjoy until you’re ultimately policed. Users like you who game the system are what drive up costs for the entire population. Thanks!
Note that I don’t disagree that tethering with a reasonable cap should be allowed at either little to no cost, but abusing any contract costs us all.
Just remember, that $30 is ON TOP of you’re existing voice and data plan.
@randy, it seems like nickel and diming, but don’t you think you should pay for services you use? You pay to eat at restaurants don’t you?
AT&T 3G and data is completely useless. The iPhone cant even hold a connection long enough to load a web page or complete a phone call right in the center of San Francisco.
All those fancy apps are data dependent and the phone cant activate the cellular data network.
Why would you use this piece to tether? Just so you can pay $30 a month to get errors on another Apple device?
BOO
WM users and BB users have been paying 30 bucks a month for tethering for years. Don’t see why people think the iPhone’s plan should be any different.
Great, now the BB nuts can stop all the non-sense “my phone can tether” yours can’t!
Fact is the iPhone has WiFi and is quite productive on its own that I hardly even carry my laptop anyways. With over 14,341 iPhone apps available, I can do mostly everything I need right on the iPhone. So to me a power user on the road quite often, I would hardly need this. But just as well, it may be a nice solution for some.
Hopefully it’ll work with a PS3!
I get tethering for free on Sprint with my Blackberry. Why would I want to pay an additional $30 a month for it?
Tethering is also free at T-mobile for BlackBerry accounts. Tethering speeds are not WiFi, but when my home DSL line was out, slow was better than nothing.
@GMoney_21, Am not a Apple loyalist but i will tell you this, if 80% of the time people are at home or at work why not have your phone switch automaticly to WiFi that’s 20x faster than 3G so you can have a better experience without costing you a single Dime, and when ever your on the road just have the unit fall back to 3G, all done without you even knowing it, i don’t see how can that be wrong
If this is true, a better approach would be to offer the service on an as needed basis, not a recurring monthly charge.
On occasion I find myself in a hotel where there’s no free wifi, and I need to get on-line with my laptop to grab a file. I’d be willing to pay say $6.00 per gig, but not $30/month.
There is Wifi everywhere in most places… and if you really need to send an urgent email, chances are you have a phone that already does that… waste of money in my opinion
It’s just a phone, calm the fck down to all the poor people.
@backbeat: It’s not like I am downloading torrents or whatever. I’m hardly “gaming the system” when Internet Sharing is a native WM app. I just used it for the first time in months when I was on my way to my gf’s family out in rural PA. On the car ride there (I was a passenger obviously) I could browse the web on my laptop at 3g speeds and when I got to their ISP-less house I could upload holiday pics and read my daily sites. I hardly consider that gaming the system nor do I consider it worth $30 per month.
$30 on top of everything else. Even VZW doesn’t hit BB users for that much ($15). Oh well…guess it will be one feature I won’t use on my iPhone.
First we do not have the actual price yet. Second VZW charges $30
With unlimited VZEmail plan or Web and Email for BlackBerry plan or feature to most users. See here:
http://b2b.vzw.com/productsservices/wirelessinternet/broadbandaccessconnect.html
My guess is the pricing will be comparable to VZW. We will wait and see.
Third, the iPhone has WiFi (as does the BB Bold) and AT&T offers 90,000 FREE hotspots. VZW offers nothing like this and only has WiFi on a scant number of phones (NO BB on VZW have WiFi). Since there are many useful apps out of the 14,346 iPhone apps available I hardly carry a laptop anymore. I do not think the take rate of this plan will be high. Soon we will see.
This is sure to be a big hit with the Walmart and Costco crowd. I am hearing talk from Costco employees that iPhone sales memos went out recently. Will this mean lower prices, if so I predict only $50 dollars less, adding a 32GB at $349.
@ Telly
BB users is what I said. $30 for the BB service and an additional $15 to tether. AT&T would be $30 with another $30 to tether.
ok i know this is the wrong approach, but what about jailbreaking and using pdanet or modem?
i don’t feel i should have to pay for tethering, it’s my bandwidth, i’ll use it as i please…